A public consultation will now get underway with a contract to build a new facility due to be awarded next year

11:58, 22 Feb 2026Updated 12:01, 22 Feb 2026

The incinerator at Sideway in 2009.

Major plans to replace Stoke-on-Trent’s ageing incinerator with a more efficient one will be in the spotlight. The imposing chimney at Hanford Energy from Waste plant has been a prominent feature of the city’s skyline for decades.

Now a contract is due to be awarded for a new energy recovery plant, near Stoke City’s Bet365 Stadium, as the current facility reaches the end of its life.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council says the new would power the equivalent of about 50,000 homes and generate a ‘significant’ income to be reinvested into local recycling and net zero schemes. The contract for the current Sideway incinerator ends in March 2030, when it will be 35 years old.

The city council’s cabinet is being asked to start a formal procurement process to find an organisation to partner with, who could invest, design, build and run the new facility. The process is expected to take 18 months, with the proposed facility scheduled to be up and running in 2032.

The precise position and orientation of the new facility would be influenced by ground condition surveys but it’s almost certain that the new facility would be located in the area currently occupied by the Hanford Household Waste and Recycling Centre, which would be moved to an alternative location. This would allow the existing plant to continue to operate while the new facility is built. Once operational, the existing plant would be decommissioned and demolished.

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for transport, infrastructure and regeneration , said: “Since it opened in 1995 the Hanford Energy from Waste facility has treated over four million tonnes of rubbish, providing the council with a safe, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable alternative to landfill.

The A500/A50 junction at Sideway with the incinerator in the background

“The plant is now reaching the end of its serviceable life, and we need to find an alternative long-term solution to how we manage the city’s non-recyclable rubbish. With the support of external experts, we have conducted detailed financial modelling and scenario testing to explore our options, including refurbishing the existing plant and exporting our waste outside of the area for treatment.

“These exercises have consistently returned the same conclusion; that building a new plant on the existing Hanford site appears to be the best option for the council, both from an environmental and financial perspective.

“Traditionally councils have awarded long-term contracts to large commercial waste companies to build and operate treatment plants on their behalf, and that’s what we did back in 1995. Under these arrangements, the council pays a ‘gate fee’ for every tonne of waste it sends to the facility, which enables the waste company to repay the debt used to fund the construction of the facility and to make an operating profit. This has been the go-to model for many decades, driven by the popularity of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts during the 1990s and 2000s.

“But we want to consider doing something different; something more commercially aware and entrepreneurial. We are exploring being the majority stakeholder in the new facility, bringing on board a minority partner to help us finance, build and run it. This would require some significant upfront investment, but it means that instead of paying to use the facility, the council would make a profit from it thanks to the sale of exported electricity and heat and gate fees charged to third-party customers to treat their waste.

“The council could use this money to invest in improving the city’s recycling infrastructure and other Net Zero projects to help boost recycling rates, minimise waste and reduce our environmental impact.”

The new facility would be designed to treat between 230,000 to 290,000 tonnes of waste per year, an increase of 10 per cent to 38 per cent compared to what is currently managed at the site.

Subject to cabinet approval, the procurement process will commence next month and is likely to conclude in summer 2027. A public consultation will run during March and April.

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